British security officials believe that hackers in North Korea were behind the cyber-attack that crippled parts of the NHS and other organisations around the world last month, according to a BBC report.
Recently, ransomware called WannaCry swept across the world, locking computers and demanding payment for them to be unlocked. The NHS in the UK was particularly badly hit. Officials in Britain’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) began their own investigation and concluded their assessment in recent weeks.
The ransomware did not target Britain or the NHS specifically, and may well have been a money-making scheme that got out of control, particularly since the hackers do not appear to have retrieved any of the ransom money as yet.
Following an international investigation by Britain’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), officials believe that the hacking group Lazarus were behind the attack. Although the group is based in North Korea the exact role of the leadership in ordering the attack is less clear.
Private sector researchers have already managed to reverse-engineer the software and find similarities between it and other malicious code developed by North Korea. However, North Korea has repeatedly denied involvement in cyber-attacks against other countries.
